Over 120 million Chinese went abroad and spent over $104.5 billion in 2015 and more are projected for 2016. But for young Chinese people, their spending isn’t all about shopping in tax-free shops. As Leo Lin Song, chief of staff of TripAdvisor says, Chinese travelers are becoming more sophisticated: they’re reaching to further places and want to have more distinct cultural experience and not afraid to explore the unknown. Yet compared to western travelers, Chinese tourists are still special. They like to read pictures and need clear guidance—and that’s where TripAdvisor chips in.

China has achieved almost miraculous advancement in a mere 30 years, but at the same time is beset with a host of structural problems and contradictions that it must grapple with, especially as economic growth begins to slow. In this interview, Kroeber, the author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know, a comprehensive introduction to China’s rise from an economic backwater in the early 1980s to the world’s second-largest economy, offers his analysis to CKGSB Knowledge on how China got here, where it might be headed, and how to understand the changes and implications.

In the past two decades, coffee has been making significant in-roads in China. Although it might not be a staple for workday breakfast yet, for young people in urban areas, it has become a status symbol and something that says about their style and taste. Coffee, says Esteban Liang, Managing Director of Costa, Asia, is an “affordable luxury.” In the interview with Liang, he discusses how coffee became so popular and what Costa Coffee has experienced in the Middle Kingdom so far. Attempting to ride the middle-class wave, Costa aims at becoming a “strong number two” in China with better environment, product and service.

Imagine when you walk in a shopping mall, a mobile advertisement pops up on your phone, giving you a coupon on exactly what you planned to buy. Or speaking to your friend about an interesting ad you saw on Facebook then discovering, to your surprise, that your friend is also interested in buying that exact product—that’s the beauty of well-designed marketing, thanks to big data. Professor Ghose at Stern Business School analyzes what consumers do with their smartphones and how businesses can tailor effective offers that occur at the optimal time, while also ensuring that information exchange is a healthy two-way street.

Central banking is not enough. While monetary policy did much to recover from the global financial crisis, its instruments have been largely exhausted and rendered ineffective. Low interest rates and quantitative easing may have kept the engine spinning, but are not pillars of sustainable economic policy. In China, there might still be scope for more monetary easing, but Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic advisor at financial services group Allianz and formerly at the helm of investment firm PIMCO, warns that, ‘‘China needs to avoid the trap that the advanced countries have fallen into, namely that of excessive prolonged reliance on central banks.’’

Three months after the Brexit vote, although some people are still in shock and refuse to take the result, most people have cooled and sat down to think about the opportunities it will bring and what to do next. In the interview with CKGSB Knowledge, Mark Pinner, Managing Director and Partner at Interel China, who has also worked for the British Conservative Party, analyses the changes it is bringing to UK-China relations from political and economic angle. Although we’ve known the referendum result, there will be prolonged period of uncertainty: are we going to have a ‘soft Brexit’ or a hard one?

“Sustainability is one of those issues that I am very passionate in, it is linked to my beliefs,” says Zhang Huaying, Coca-Cola’s VP for Sustainability in the Greater China, Korea region. She has been tasked with integrating the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility plans into day-to-day operations, taking it beyond just PR concerns. But how exactly does this work? And how is Coca-Cola’s CSR program structured differently to most companies? In this interview, Zhang talks to CKGSB Knowledge on how Coca-Cola practically implements sustainability programs in China, whether the issue is water sustainability or financial arrangements for helping out with responses to natural disasters.

Companies today are less enthusiastic about corporate strategy. Strategy as a way of thinking has become “a lost discipline”, as phrased by Roger Martin, former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and where he still teaches. In this interview, he points out that having an “emergent strategy” does not mean “don’t have a strategy” and we should get away from strategy as planning. He also explains “integrative thinking” and “design thinking” and how to use them in daily lives and help decision-making.

With new innovations taking place every day, we have entered an era where industries and companies are increasingly at risk for disruption and job security is much less than it was in the past. One way to safeguard your professional life is to develop a strong reputation to fit in with the changing market. However building a public reputation is never easy: finding your uniqueness, how other people think of you and what to listen to can all become barriers to self-promotion. In this interview Dorie Clark, the author of two popular personal branding books, explains a step-by-step approach for individuals who are interested in creating their personal brand.

Yidao Yongche was the first car-hailing business in China. At first, the company was badly affected by opposition from local authorities—but later on was hit by the rise of Didi and Uber China, which became popular through subsidies and low prices. In July, Chinese authorities finally legalized car-hailing apps and stipulated that unfair competition, such as steep discounts and subsidies, should stop. So will Yidao seize the opportunity and grow? Zhou Hang, CEO and founder of Yidao, talks about his company and the future of the “internet of cars”.

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Information, analysis, and interviews about the Chinese economy and doing business in China, from the people who know it best. Presented by the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China's leading business school.